Aphrodisia Authors :: Blog

Let’s talk 2010.

First, I’m resolved to get some new proposals to my agent and start cranking out more novels. We’ll see how that goes. I have some ideas that I’m pretty stoked about, but can’t say more than that right now. Wish me luck.

Second, let’s talk about what I know is coming down the pipeline this year. My release schedule is pretty locked in already, which makes some of the new year feel more solid. Promotion is never ending for the authorly, ya know?

I have two new books coming out from Kensington this year. The first is the Sexy Beast IX anthology in September with the fabulous Lisa Renee Jones and Vonna Harper. In my part “Between Lovers,” I’m introducing a new world with modern day shifters out and about in the real world. The Between, they’re called.

Here’s the totally unofficial blurb:

The Between. A race of people between light and dark. Good and evil. Human and animal. The world discovered their existence over a decade ago, and so far the balance between humans and Between has been precarious at best. One bite is all it takes to cross the line from human to Between. It doesn’t matter what species of shapeshifter bites a human–only the soul can dictate what kind of animal is most suited to a Between. Many humans think they’re dangerous and should be locked away, while others covet their power.

It’s a perilous time to be a Between and even more perilous to rule the Between. Elan Delacourt’s soul made him a lion, a king, and he’s been juggling human-Between politics since his father unveiled their people to the world. Then Elan finds that one of his own is kidnapping women and turning them into Between illegally. To make matters worse, he’s murdering the women and dumping their mutilated, half-changed bodies where humans are most likely to find them. This shifter must be stopped, and quietly, or all the peace Elan has fought and sacrificed for will evaporate like mist on summer day. When Elan’s security teams finally track down the offender, they find someone else has done their dirty work for them.

Rhiannon Reid never imagined a spontaneous camping trip into the wilderness would end her life as she knew it. She’d never even met one of the Between until one was torturing her for days on end, sinking his fangs into her flesh, and laughing while the agony of change ripped through her body. One moment of inattention is the only opportunity she gets, and she takes it, killing her kidnapper while trying to escape him.

She’s solved a problem by slaying the rogue shifter, but created a whole new one by surviving to tell the tale. Elan he has to ensure her silence about how and why she was turned. Ruthless commonsense dictates that he have her killed–it’s the only sure way to know she’ll never talk. But . . . he just can’t do it. The riskier approach is to make her happy enough to be a Between that she no longer cares how it happened. That’s a challenge he finds himself eager to take on–a king’s duty is never done until his subjects are fully satisfied.

Then there’s Primal Heat in November, which is also in the present day, but has ancient shifters showing up from a distant world to claim what’s theirs.

This is also a totally unofficial blurb.

The world changed in the blink of an eye. The Kith returned to Earth, and humans learned the terrible truth. They were lesser beings, slaves, abandoned to colonize a barbaric planet the Kith discovered centuries ago. They might have gone on in ignorance, but the Emperor of the Kith knows that his One is among the Kin. He sensed her the moment she reached maturity, and he will tear the planet apart if he must to find her, to claim her, to bond his mind and body with hers.

Wicked Lord

Sergeant Major Bren Preston doesn’t believe for a second that the powerful Kith brought an entire armada across space for a woman. No matter what the Kith ambassador claims–or how attractive she finds Lord Farid Arjun–she knows Earth will never surrender to the Kith fleet. But when she finds that her own commander, General Arthur, wants the planet for himself, she’ll have to decide what she’s willing to risk to save her people. Farid might be able to help her. For a price. He’s desired her from the moment he first saw her, and he’s not going to settle for less than everything she has to give. Her body, her heart, her mind, her hard-won independence. She’ll have to surrender herself to him if she wants to save Earth.

Carnal Empress

Jana Townsend was once a normal woman with a normal life. Until the day Emperor Kyber showed up and claimed her for his own. Nothing had ever felt so right, so perfect. But it was over far too soon. General Arthur’s men captured Kyber and spend months torturing him before Jana and the Kith forces can free him. Now, Jana and Kyber can’t find the common ground they’d once had. Both of them have changed, become different people, but the bond between them can’t be broken. They’re too damaged to move forward, but they crave each other too much to let go. The only thing they can agree on is that before the Kith leave Earth, they have to keep the planet from General Arthur’s clutches. For Kyber, justice and vengeance go hand in hand, and working with Jana to fight a common enemy shows him that the one thing he can’t lose is her.

Check out my upcoming releases page on my website to see what else I have coming from other publishers and to see an excerpt from the two books I just mentioned!

The other day I was wandering around the mall with my best friend. She went to buy an iPhone and then we went to the Apple Store to get her a cover for it and some extra accessories. Along the way, we stopped in at one of the mall’s bookstores. There on the shelf were three shiny new copies of Carnal Desires. It also looked like there had once been more, so people might actually have purchased some!

I looked at my best friend and said, “We should find a manager and ask if, you know, they want me to sign these. Or put bookmarks in them or something.”

She looks back at me. “Okay. Go do that.”

Me: “I’ve never done this before.”

Her: “Why are you looking at me? You’re the writer. It’s not like I’ve done this before.”

Me: “You used to work at a bookstore.”

She sighed, finally realized that her best friend duties required her to suck it up and help me, and went with me to find a store employee. I stuttered and stumbled my way through an explanation to a boy young enough to be a my baby cousin, and he went to fetch a manger while very excited that there was an author standing at the counter. So, for my first, I signed stock in bookstores. It was scary and fun. Though not as fun as having the original store employee follow me around trying to see which book was mine. Don’t buy it, little boy! Run for your virtue!

(I also spotted Kate Pearce’s new book Simply Sinful. If you haven’t picked that bad boy up, you really should. In fact, get all her Simply books, they’re deliciously naughty.)

My birthday was two days ago. I turned 28 on the 28th. Someone called it my anniversary birthday (which made no sense to me), but this is the only time my date and birthday are the same number. It’s rather odd to be 28, but I’m not sure why. Maybe I should feel more mature than I do, but I don’t. Ah, well.

It has gotten me thinking about what I’m going to do with myself in the next year. Maybe it’s my birthday that always kicks in that line of thought or maybe it’s the new year, but I do tend to think about my plans right around this time.

I have several releases coming out next year, which always sends shivers of delight down my spine. The first is On The Prowl, which comes out in May. Then in September, I have a holiday novella in an anthology, then in November I have the book I’m currently writing coming out. It’s currently titled Untamed, which I think will stick, but you never know.

In between those releases are deadlines for books coming out in 2010. I have a novella with a Big Cat hero for another anthology, then two full books. All this between now and this time next year. Plus, the full time day job.

I think this is the last year I sit down and ponder this without expiring from exhaustion just thinking about all I have to do. I’ll get it all done. I hope.

Happy new year! Best of luck with all your goals for the coming months!

Today starts my kid’s school schedule. I am divorced with two little kids and during the summer months, I have my kids most of the time. The school year brings change for all of my family as my kids go back to their Dad during the week and come to see me on the weekends. It is a good schedule for writing and having a day job, but sad because I get to see my little ones so much less.

This year is also my daughter’s first year of preschool and my sons first year of kindergarten. Big milestones in their lives and in all of ours. I am lucky that I am good friends with my X now. It took us a few years to get back to this place of working together for the wellbeing of our kids. I know they still struggle with the “mom and dad not being together” stuff, but there is no more yelling at each other and that is I think a much better environment to grow up in. An environment where mom and dad are actually friends and give each other hugs and sit and share glasses of wine together is much more stable and pleasant than slamming doors and harsh words.

So, I try to concentrate on the new beginnings this schedule brings and with my free time I will take a new class and write my next book. I am not sure what that book will be yet. I am thinking something historical. Maybe based around a historical event of some kind. I purchased a book on a recent trip to Portland. It is a dictionary of English Folklore. I never knew such a book existed but it is filled with all sorts of wonderful definitions of words such as (flipping book open to some unknown page)

Lantern Man: An East Anglian name for a fierce *Will-o’-the -Wisp. One must never *whistle at night, or he will come; the only protection then is to lie flat with one’s face buried in the mud, so that he passes over one’s body.

Grin. Interesting eh?

Well I am sure I will find some bits of inspiration that will focus me back on my writing and away from my kids starting a new part of their life and a new schedule with Dad.

I hope your back to school days are filled with joy and smiles.
Lacy.